Need to provide bank statements for UC review, but elderly relatives use my accounts as well.

pvhc47

Hi everyone. Really stressed about this cause I’m in a right pickle. Essentially my setup is strange and unorthodox. I have two bank accounts. One that is a savings, one that’s a current account, both with different banks. I receive my UC into the savings account. I rarely keep money in that account, I always transfer it to my main account. Trouble is, they want to see ALL statements across all banks. My mother, grandmother and great aunt get their benefits/pensions and wages (in my aunt’s case) paid into my account. 

My family HATE banks. They prefer to do everything in cash. My aunt used to get her wages for her job (which is as a tarot card reader online) paid into her husband’s account, but when he passed 4 years back she asked if she could just get her wage paid into my account and I would give her the money in cash or help her get her food in with it. My mother gets her ESA payments into my account for the same reason, and my grandmother recently started getting her pension paid into my current account when my grandfather died last year.

My mother and grandma’s isn’t too bad because their national insurance numbers are against the payments into the account, but my aunts is labeled as wages and is paid in weekly. I can produce statements from the psychics switchboard she works on, but on the statements they use her “psychic name” (readers all use catchy names). It’s not like an official bank statement, it’s a statement from the site she works for. I do not want them to think I’m working and it’s my money or else I’m in a world of trouble.

Money never exceeds 6k, but that’s not really the point. What do I do in this scenario?

Mark_d

Bank accounts are essential for everyone - and everyone can get one.  Bank accounts are needed for receiving money, verifying identity and paying the cheapest prices for energy, broadband etc.

It appears that your aunt is earning money and gifting her entire wages to you - the money in your sole-named bank account belongs to you.  We're in the 2020's now.  Virtually everyone has mobile phones and bank accounts.  What you're doing sounds a bit like money laundering.  Be careful.

Grumpelstiltskin

I would add what would happen if you dropped dead tomorrow?

asdf1982

There must be pay slips from the psychic helpline, or is she considered self employed?

TheSpectator

In addition to the pickle you are now in, you are probably breaching the Terms and Conditions of your bank account doing what you are doing. You will the one that ends uo being debanked.

tacpot12

While I agree with the other posters that you are risking problems with your bank account, there are no benefit rules that say you can't receive money on behalf for other people.

However, the payments marked as Wages could be a big problem. It would not be a problem if your aunt worked for the Psychics Swithcboard and received payslips showing that Income Tax and National Insurance had been deducted, OR if she is self-employed and has declared her self as self-employed and submits self-assessment tax returns OR she earns less than £1000 a year doing this work. 

If your aunt is paying income tax to HMCR or the amount adds up to less than £1000, you just need to share her payslips or the statements that have her psychic name on it AND (if she is earning more than £1000 a year) the tax return to show that it is her money.

If she hasn't paid tax on the money, then the DWP will be right to regard it as all yours and you would seem to have no way to provide it's not. You need to be careful helping out family if it turns you into a money launderer or gets you prosecuted for facilitating tax evasion.   

HillStreetBlues

You need to get everything in order and a breakdown of everything paid into your account.
Your aunt should never have got her wages paid into your account, she should have known this was coming.

pvhc47

Jesus this is a big problem. I’m a naive fool. It goes over 1K a way but I thought it had to be over 12.5K before you paid tax, particularly with her being an OAP. 

Stressing out big time. Already had a massive blow out with my family about this.

noitsnotme

pvhc47 said:

My aunt used to get her wages for her job (which is as a tarot card reader online)

She should have seen this coming!



I'll get my coat!!

flossymcfly

pvhc47 said:

Jesus this is a big problem. I’m a naive fool. It goes over 1K a way but I thought it had to be over 12.5K before you paid tax, particularly with her being an OAP. 

Stressing out big time. Already had a massive blow out with my family about this.

State pension is also taxable so if she is getting the basic state pension of £221.20 a week (and no other income), she will have had £1067 left of her tax free allowance. Anything above that should be taxed at 20% (again, if her only other income is her State Pension).

Does the Psychic Switchboard verify the identity of their Psychics at all? Is there any proof that it is your aunt doing the readings and not you? I'd advise to gather as much proof as possible. As tacpot has mentioned, there is no rule that you can't receive other people's benefits, these are marked as wages and you may have some work to do to prove this to DWP. This could also flag up that your aunt is earning and should be paying tax - this wouldn't fall back on you, it's her responsibility to deal with that.

teaselMay

They all need to now open their own bank accounts, today or tomorrow and today or tomorrow arrange for their payments to go in to them. Age etc is no reason not to have a bank account